Nine confirmed dead in Egypt leisure boat accident

Police divers are searching for at least five people still missing

Egyptian police divers were searching for at least five people missing and presumed dead after their leisure boat sank in a lake near the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria on Tuesday, local officials said.

At least 19 people were on the boat when it capsized and sank in Lake Mariout on Monday night. The divers have so far retrieved nine bodies from the wreck, including children aged between one and four, they added.

Five other passengers were rescued and taken to hospital.

A preliminary police report blamed the boat being overloaded as the cause of the accident. Overloading has been the cause of the vast majority of similar accidents in the past, particularly on Nile ferries and leisure boats.